


Proof

by dralexreid



Series: Dr Piper Bishop [69]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:14:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29142810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dralexreid/pseuds/dralexreid
Summary: The BAU is called to rural Oklahoma when a serial killer begins torturing and murdering a certain type of women. Meanwhile, Reid and Bishop treat JJ and Prentiss with deliberate disregard as they try to deal with their deception regarding Prentiss' fake death.
Relationships: Dr Spencer Reid/Dr Piper Bishop
Series: Dr Piper Bishop [69]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972852
Kudos: 14





	Proof

Emily and JJ turned the corner from the firing range as they discussed the blonde woman’s past 7 months. “So, you finished the course?” Emily asked genially, but unsurprised.

“Mm-hmm. And completed my case rotation.”

“Hotch says he's never seen a rookie profiler analyse and write up cases as well as you.”

“He said that?” JJ asked, surprised at the compliment.

“Yeah. Well, after all the cases you presented over the years, I'm not surprised,” Emily said, smiling at her broadly as they approached the double elevators outside the bullpen and JJ’s gaze caught on Spencer’s frame, a file in his hand.

“Hey, where have you been?” JJ asked him as he stepped out of the elevator, his amber eyes trained on the file. “I wanted to do brunch this weekend.”

“I had to deal with some stuff with my mom,” he said, without looking up. “Have you seen Piper?”

“She’s with Garcia and…” JJ’s voice trailed off as Spencer walked straight past them, not bothering to slow down for either of them. Emily watched the exchange with uneasiness. Was this her fault? Had she ruined the team? “He hates me,” JJ said, her blue eyes focused on Spencer’s frame as he rushed up to the conference room, joining the others.

“I’m sure he was just busy,” Emily supplied. “Let it go.” The two ladies walked into a jovial mood around the round table. Penelope was seated next to Rossi, Piper standing behind her, eyes closed as she tasted something.

“Okay, you can be honest,” Penelope begged the Italian man, clutching her Tupperware with pasta. “I can take it.”

“Okay,” Dave sighed. “I prefer my pasta al dente, and the pancetta was a little weird.”

“Oh, that’s ‘cause it’s tofu,” Penelope said happily, oblivious to Piper’s warning signal behind her.

“Tofu?” Rossi spluttered. “I give you my recipe and you do an improv?” Piper smacked her forehead, shaking it as she wandered over to the coffee pot.

“No, no, I followed it down to the micron, aside from the pig,” Penelope protested, swatting at a chuckling Derek.

“Pen, maybe you should stick to spaghetti?” Piper offered with a barely stifled snicker, grasping her mug of coffee and taking a seat between Spencer and Derek.

“Or mac and cheese,” Rossi scoffed, sharing a glance with Piper.

“Look, master of all things Italian, I am having a Fellini festival at my house this weekend and I must serve the beautiful food of his country,” Penelope urged.

“Maybe you should show a Disney film and stick with burgers,” Rossi offered as Emily and JJ took their seats between Spencer and Penelope.

“You know, Rossi, you could always give Penelope a cooking lesson,” Derek proposed, and Penelope pounced on the idea while Rossi gave the profiler a look.

“Oh, my gosh, that would be amazing,” Penelope said excitedly as Derek smiled broadly. “That would be like— that would be like the Iron Chef meets the BAU.” JJ rolled her eyes slightly. “And we could do it at your house.” Dave turned to his tablet immediately.

“I don’t have a house, I have a mansion,” Rossi corrected, eliciting a chuckle from Derek while Hotch made his way into the room, proposing that they get started. JJ slid the remote for the large screen over to Penelope, letting her start and putting an end to their genial mood.

In the last three days, two women had been found dead after being sexually tortured and then blinded with a sulfuric acid solution. Abby Elcott was a 19-year-old art student who was headed to campus for an advanced drawing class. She'd been missing for two days. Beth Westley was of similar victimology, a 17-year-old headed to a bar method class. Both of them were low-risk victims and physically similar with their abduction sites merely 5 miles from each other. Abby's cell was found near one, Beth's scarf near the other. After 2 days, both women were both dumped, one in an alley, one in a field.

“So, he stapled their eyes open, then he blinded them,” JJ said, glancing at Spencer whose gaze was fixed on his tablet. “It's about power and control.”

“Maybe he didn't want them to watch while he hurt them,” Derek proposed.

“Or it could be about shame,” Spencer said, shifting his gaze in front, excluding both Emily and JJ from it. Piper focused on Spencer, trying her hardest to appear unchanged. “Perhaps the unsub is disfigured himself.”

“Yeah, but it’d be more logical to staple the eyes shut than staple open and then blind them,” Piper countered. “Blinding them with acid is excessive.”

“Blinding the victims would leave them helpless, lost, totally dependent,” Spencer admitted slowly. “It may be a manifestation of how he sees himself in this world.”

“It is a form of enucleation, just without the scalpel,” Emily added, turning to JJ beside her.

“His face is the last they see before darkness,” Rossi sighed.

“Garcia come up with a list of jobs that would give the unsub access to sulfuric acid,” Hotch directed her before dismissing everyone to the jet in 30 minutes. JJ watched half-heartedly as Derek and Spencer moved off trailed by Piper and Rossi.

“This one’s gonna be tough,” Emily sighed, following the group out and JJ had a vague feeling that Emily wasn’t talking about the case.

* * *

Emily took her seat in front of Derek beside Rossi, her glance occasionally shifting up to study Piper who leant against the jet wall behind Derek. She felt JJ’s comforting presence behind her, presuming her gaze to be fixed on Spencer who sat on the arm of the couch beside Aaron who was perched on a table. “Victimology is very similar,” Aaron said, glancing at both their victims. “Blond-haired, blue-eyed teenage girls.”

“We believe they were each abducted near public transportation stops.”

“When was this photo taken?” Emily asked, pulling out a still from surveillance footage.

“Beth was caught on a bank surveillance camera 3 hours before she disappeared,” Derek supplied. “We also have a recent photo of Abby.”

“So, she wasn't found in the same clothes she was abducted in,” Emily surmised, pulling out a photo of the disposal site.

“Maybe he changed them because hers were burned by the sulfuric acid,” Rossi proposed.

“It's possible. Sulfuric acid can turn human flesh into soap,” Spencer said.

“Or he’s fulfilling a sexual fantasy,” Piper suggested.

“Garcia, any recent similar cases in the surrounding area?” Hotch asked.

“Actually, yes,” Penelope said through the laptop. “Two months ago, a prostitute and a runaway were both found raped and killed and they had stab wounds to their eyes.”

“So maybe he practised on high-risk victims first,” JJ presumed.

“And then advanced to chemical enucleation,” Derek supplied.

“Isn't that a rare paraphilia?”

“Well, the chemical part is,” Emily answered. “It would exacerbate the pain.”

“Like Ed Kemper, he's probably practising on surrogates before going after the real object of his rage,” Rossi continued and Hotch took it as a cue to distribute tasks.

“Dave, you and I will talk to the parents. Bishop and Prentiss—”

“Actually, I wanted to explore a campus connection,” Piper interrupted, knowing where Hotch was going to go with her. “Both of them were going to a class, it’s possible that’s where the unsub met the girls.” Aaron nodded slowly.

“Okay, Morgan, take Prentiss to the disposal sites,” Hotch amended. “JJ, you and Reid to the abduction sites.” JJ tried to offer Spencer a smile, but he had already turned back to his file. As soon as the jet hit the tarmac, the team spread out to their various tasks; Hotch and Rossi to the precinct, Morgan and Prentiss to the alley where they would meet the detective, JJ and Reid to the bus stop where Beth was taken, and Piper to the art class and the bar method class. JJ struggled to keep up with Spencer on the pavement as he marched towards the bus stop.

“So, Beth got off the bus here and headed northwest toward class,” Spencer offered coldly.

“It's amazing no one witnessed her abduction,” JJ remarked, glancing around at the busy road.

“Emily was buried 6 feet under and wound up in Paris, so I guess anything's possible, right?” Spencer scoffed humourlessly.

“So that is what this is about.”

“Maybe our unsub's a little bit like Bundy,” Spencer said, ignoring her. “He feigns an injury in order to get her to help him.”

“Look, Spence, if you want to talk about this—” JJ offered but he’d already interrupted her.

“Maybe he tried other tactics, like, ‘Wow, you're really pretty. You should be a model. I can take your photo’.” Spencer turned, gazing onto the sparse road.

“Charm’s quite the killer,” JJ offered, her hair whipped away by the wind.

“So are tears,” Spencer said passively, his eyes pinned on the road. “Whatever his ruse was, the unsub mostly likely used it to get her into his vehicle.”

“Well, if Abby was last seen at a bus stop a few miles away, then he definitely has a means of transportation,” JJ said, letting the issue go.

“Hopefully the disposal site will tell us more,” Spencer dismissed, walking away from her to the SUV parked a few feet away.

* * *

Piper stepped into the M.E.’s office where Aaron and Dave had asked her to meet them. She pushed through the translucent door, joining them, her gaze slipping to the two pale blonde women on the table, eyes burned away from acid. “Penelope called the local thrift shop and found Abby's clothes,” she updated them.

“So, he sold them,” Aaron said.

“Or traded them for the eighties clothing,” Dave offered.

“The sales-clerk said the clothes in the crime scene photos were of that time period, and he confirmed that they were purchased from his store,” Piper said simply.

“What about the classes, any leads?” Dave asked.

“Nothing of value,” Piper sighed, her hands squashed in her leather jacket pockets. “If Derek’s right, we’re looking for someone who’s probably homeless. He would have been recognised by someone on Abby’s campus. Garcia’s got a copy of surveillance tapes in case we need it.”

“So, if he's getting rid of his souvenirs, what's he using to remember his victims? And why is he fixated on this era?” Hotch asked.

“If these women are surrogates, maybe he doesn’t need a souvenir,” Piper suggested, arms crossed over her chest as she shrugged. “He’s got the original to remember them by. What did the M.E. tell you guys?”

“Multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest, plus wounds to the genitalia,” Aaron said, his solemn gaze falling on the victims.

“Frustration and overkill,” Dave summed up. “But with Beth, we’ve got the same chemical damage on the skin around her nostrils.”

“He’s eroding her sense of smell?” Piper asked, her forehead wrinkled, either in disgust or confusion.

“He's escalating,” Aaron confirmed. “And blinding isn't his only signature. He's trying to take away their senses.” Instead of returning to the precinct, Hotch updated everyone over the phone as each group made their way to the motel. Emily and JJ trailed behind the group, both of them worried about more than just their victims. Derek and Dave seemed fine, but Piper hadn’t spoken to Emily all day, brushing her off or excusing herself while Spencer had been passive-aggressive with JJ the entire trip. But while the two of them seemed incapable of handling their emotions, Derek had become incredibly distant with Hotch, never addressing him and using other people as a pigeon system when needed. If Hotch had noticed it, he hadn’t made any move to fix the relationship. Technically, the team was off the clock right now and usually, they would have invaded someone’s room and ordered room service or a few large pizzas while discussing the case at hand, or a previous case before falling asleep on top of each other. Instead, they all retired to their own rooms, emerging the next morning slightly tired to the report of another victim. Hotch sent Reid, JJ, Bishop and Rossi to the disposal site while the rest of them returned to the precinct.

The four of them bundled out of the SUV, gratefully accepting gloves from the CSU as they approached the scene. “Again, he's disposing them in an area frequented by homeless people,” Rossi noted as the quartet moved towards their next victim lying on a blanket.

“He probably fits in,” Piper proposed. “Dumps them in the middle of the night, no-one’s bothered to check whether she’s asleep or dead until he leaves.”

“It's equidistant to the last two dump sites,” Spencer added, noticing Piper’s unfurrowed brow. “What’s up?”

“This may sound…off but what if he’s on a fixed route?” Piper asked as JJ bent down to examine the victim. “Both abduction sites were no more than 5 miles away from each other and each disposal site is on the same road, just different spots.” She watched with Spencer and Dave as JJ pulled gently on the young woman’s bottom lip, looking into the mouth cavity that was burned away.

“He burned her tongue with the chemical this time,” JJ said as she stood up. “So, he removed her ability to taste. Why would he do that?”

“Historically, this kind of torture was used to prevent someone from revealing a secret,” Spencer said pointedly as Piper adjusted her watch.

“Or as a punishment for spilling one. I can’t believe that’s relevant,” Piper dismissed gently. “It’s more likely she rejected his advances.”

“Her lips _are_ chapped,” Dave added, glancing between the blonde woman and the tall doctor.

“She was probably forced to repeatedly participate in some sort of kissing fantasy,” Spencer continued. “And when things go awry, he takes the offending sense away.”

“He can’t handle the rejection,” Piper surmised. “If you won’t have me, you can’t have anyone else ever again.”

“He tortured her in these clothes, which means the eighties are essential to his delusion,” David offered. “Maybe that's when this rejection occurred, and he held on to the clothes all these years.”

“And now he's attacking girls who remind him of women from that time,” JJ added.

“Or one woman,” Piper countered. “He's fixated on her type and remakes them to fit his fantasy.”

“Why start now?” Spencer asked her.

“Something probably triggered it,” JJ said. “And instead of dealing with it, he's acting out.” Spencer glanced at JJ mutinously, barely hearing anyone over the blood pounding around his ears, choosing to walk away instead. The ride back was silent, tension palpable in their SUV as Piper and Dave crammed into the front seats, not wanting any part in the tension behind them. Both glanced every so often into the rear-view mirror, only seeing JJ stare out the window and Spencer peruse an already memorised file. She should have been predicting stressors, but she couldn’t focus on anything either. She’d wasted time on a dead-end, she couldn’t meet Emily’s gaze and if she were honest, she hadn’t been able to breathe in that medical examiner’s office either.

They started to deliver a polished profile, at least so they thought, while Piper was going through harassment complaints and prior assault allegations with Penelope, but they came up with nothing that matched their profile. The ladies moved on to half-way homes, going through records of transients, hitting nothing but dead ends. Emily looked through the window at Piper pacing in front of a laptop, no doubt with an anxious Penelope on the other end, a look that Derek caught. Sighing, they continued.

“ _Okay, rewind, sweetheart_ ,” Penelope’s voice came through. “ _What kind of trigger are we looking for here?_ ”

“A sexual advance, made in high school, one that made him feel rejected.”

“ _Rejection in high school? That’ll get us results,_ ” Penelope scoffed as Piper kept pacing.

“Except everyone gets rejected. I mean, it’s high school, usually you forget about a sexual rejection like that.”

_“So, maybe it was bigger than that? I could look into high school suspensions?”_

“We’re talking about teenagers in the 80s, Pen,” Piper explained.

_“Right, got it. Don’t ask, don’t tell, got it.”_

“So, this rejection happens, he spirals. A pre-existing condition could exacerbate his reaction but for so long?”

 _“How long does a usual reaction last?”_ Penelope asked.

“Okay, you need to think about rejection like pizza, right? It’s a really hot pizza, burns your mouth but that doesn’t mean you give up on every pizza in existence and start killing pizza owners.” Penelope snorted at the idea but Piper’s forehead wrinkled but her train of thought was broken by Spencer entering the room abruptly. Piper opened her mouth to speak but JJ’s voice filtered in.

“Spence. Look, we gotta talk about this.”

“I don't want to talk about it,” he retorted, making a beeline for the workspace.

“I get it, ok? You're disappointed with the way we handled Emily.” JJ tried to corner him while Piper and Penelope stared at each other sheepishly.

“Listen, I have a lot going on, all right?” Spencer moved to walk away and in one final moment of desperation, JJ blurted out the only thing that would stop him.

“You know what I think it is? You're mad that Hotch and I controlled our micro-expressions at the hospital, and you weren't able to detect our deception.” Piper watched the two of them uneasily, her gaze shifting from Spencer’s aggressive stance and JJ’s defensive position. Penelope was the lucky one, able to blip out of the room in a second, but she was pinned to her chair. Spencer caught Piper’s pleading expression, but he couldn’t do this any longer.

“You think it's about my profiling skills?” he said quietly, anger making his voice shake. JJ shrugged, not knowing what to make of his behaviour. “Jennifer, listen, the only reason you were able to manage my perceptions is because I trusted you. I came to your house for 10 weeks in a row crying over losing a friend, and not once did you have the decency to tell me the truth.”

“I couldn't,” she managed.

“You couldn't?” Spencer challenged. “Or you wouldn't?”

“No, I couldn't,” she insisted.

“What if I started taking Dilaudid again?” he asked her. “Would you have let me?” Piper straightened up.

“Spence—” she started, her arm moving to his side, trying to stop him.

“You didn't,” JJ said, her voice growing smaller.

“Yeah, but I thought about it,” Spencer said, his gaze shifting from JJ to Piper before whirling around to join the others with his file.

“Spence,” JJ called out again, making Spencer whip around aggressively. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late, alright,” Spencer countered before marching out, Emily calling after him. JJ felt Piper’s arm wrap around her.

“He hates me.”

“He doesn’t,” Piper tried, wiping away one of JJ’s tears. “He doesn’t hate you, okay. He just, he’s just angry at the situation and he’s taking it out on you.”

“Talk to him,” JJ pleaded. “Tell him I didn’t want to hurt him.” Piper nodded, letting Emily take over while she walked away to talk some sense into her boyfriend.

“You’ve got 10 minutes,” Hotch warned her and she shot him a thumbs-up as she walked away, finding Spencer outside the station, brooding quietly, a soft breeze brushing against his little tufts of hair. Piper wrung her hands as she approached him in the fall air.

“You here to tell me off?” Spencer asked bitterly.

“I’m here because everyone else is afraid of you,” Piper joked, gaining a small humorous puff from him. “I know you didn’t mean what you said to JJ.”

“She lied to me, Pipes. To my face, for months.”

“Right, the 10 weeks in a row,” Piper said sheepishly. “Spence, they were trying to keep us safe. All of us. You know that, right?” Piper’s warm hand slipped into his cold one, wincing at his freezing hand.

“Yeah,” he said childishly.

“And if I’m honest, I don’t think it’s the dishonesty bothering you. You forgave me and Emily and Hotch. Why do you think JJ is bothering you so much?” Spencer’s forehead crinkled softly as he looked down at her.

“Is this Dr Bishop coming out?” Piper shrugged, smiling slightly.

“You _are_ dating an ex-therapist. Answer the question,” Piper prodded.

“I don’t know,” he admitted softly. “Because I opened up to her. I told her everything. For almost 2 months. She didn’t think twice before lying.”

“But she listened to you, Spence,” Piper urged him. “For ten weeks, she listened to everything, she cared for you. You said you thought about taking Dilaudid, but do you ever stop to think that maybe the real reason that you didn’t was because of her?” Piper squeezed his arm softly until her hand went slack. “She was around all the time,” Piper murmured softly, a partial thought forming in her head. “He doesn’t take souvenirs, he doesn’t take trophies, he acts out on surrogates except he had a recent stressor. When Sarah didn’t return his advances, he burned her tongue so bad she’d never taste again.”

“If I can’t have you, no-one else can,” Spencer recalled. “So?”

“So, why would a woman stay any closer than necessary to a man she doesn’t want? Let alone a homeless person? And for him to be fixated on her to this extreme, he must have been rejected again. Reminded of how he can’t have what he wants.” Spencer wrinkled his forehead.

“Come on,” he said finally, pulling her into the precinct with her, his grip on her wrist loose but insistent. Emily looked up immediately as they approached quickly. “I don't think we're dealing with a typical homeless person. He's good with chemicals, owns a car. I think the only mistake in our profile was assuming there was something wrong with his physical composition, reducing him to some sort of stereotype.”

“Actually, a developmental disorder could elicit this kind of fixation,” Piper said, drawing on what Spencer was implying.

“Especially if he’s smart enough to use his disability to his advantage so he comes across as harmless,” Emily added, testing the waters with Piper.

“And it’d explain why this woman would still choose to be around him despite his advances.”

“Wait, you have a profile of his trigger?” Derek asked. Piper licked her lips.

“Sort of,” she stammered. “It’s preliminary but we know she’s blonde, blue eyes, she’s probably the same age as him. The burning of the victim’s senses means she’s in a committed relationship with someone also close to the unsub. She or her partner feel responsible for his welfare, but she’s definitely uncomfortable around him. But he was confident enough to advance her, probably recently, right before Abby’s abduction. That would’ve been the stressor, another rejection.”

 _“The pizza burnt his mouth!”_ Penelope said, far too excitedly, making even Spencer snicker.

“What?” Derek asked, and Piper crossed her arms.

“ _Wh—It—Piper used it as a metaphor for rejection_ ,” Penelope defended herself and everyone understood her far too quickly. The doctor did have a tendency to use far-fetched analogies.

“Garcia, I need a list of halfway houses and mental health centres in the unsub's comfort zone,” Aaron directed her.

“Okay. 5 are being sent to your phones.”

“Which of those were around in the eighties, Garcia?” Dave tried.

“There are two in your area.”

“Morgan and Prentiss take the first. Dave and JJ take the second,” Hotch directed them, opting to stay behind with Spencer to go through ViCAP for similar signatures while Piper searched for their ‘triggerwoman’, her new favourite word to call an unsub’s trigger.

Meanwhile, Emily and Derek finished talking to one of the staff at their centre and were waiting for the staff member to get them a list of names in silence until Emily spoke up. “You think Reid’s gonna be okay?”

“Emily, there's a lot about you being back that's unresolved,” Derek said softly and Emily almost flinched.

“Are you pissed at me, too?”

“Come on, now,” Derek said. “How can I be?” He asked, letting Emily’s shoulders sag in relief. “You're here.”

“Thank you,” Emily sighed. “Because I know what you went through. Grief counselling. You carried my coffin.” Derek snorted.

“Yeah, I sure did,” he scoffed. “What was in that thing, anyway?” Emily laughed uneasily. So far, she knew more than half her team wasn’t mad at her. Her attention was dragged away from Derek to the staffer who handed them their list and the duo began to walk away. “Besides, Reid’s not the genius you’re worried about.” Emily raised an eyebrow. “Oh, come on, I’m good at my job. Piper’s been avoiding you ever since you got back.”

“She hasn’t said a word to me since we got Declan back. She sent me a formal email about Declan’s living arrangements. From two desks away.” Derek snorted at that and Emily smacked him.

“You act like that’s not predictable,” Derek smirked. “If running away from your feelings was an academic subject, she would have a PhD in it. You want her to talk to you, you’re gonna have to corner her.”

“How?” Emily asked hopelessly as Derek started the car, pulling onto the dark Oklahoma road. “She doesn’t stay in one place long enough.”

“There is one place she goes every night after a case,” Derek offered, dialling a familiar number on his cell. “I’ll send you an address and a time.” Emily squinted at Derek stiffening up at the sound of Hotch’s voice, letting Emily update him instead.

“Yeah, Hotch, it's Prentiss. Listen, 19 people entered this house in the eighties who were let out in the last 5 years.”

“Yeah, Dave and JJ got 11. Send them over, we’ll have Garcia cross-check them against jobs that use sulfuric acid, then we can start reaching out to extended families.”

“Cool.” Emily disconnected the call, addressing Morgan next. “What the hell was that?” she asked, intrigued.

“Like I said, there’s a lot about you being back that’s unresolved,” Derek reiterated darkly.

Meanwhile, Dave noticed Spencer exit the room gracefully as he and JJ joined them. It wasn’t surprising when JJ disappeared to the bathroom. “You want me to handle it?” Piper asked Hotch softly and he nodded, murmuring to her to be quick as Dave took a seat.

“So, nothing changed with Reid?” the seasoned profiler asked the unit chief.

“Bishop told me to give him time. We don’t have that kind of time. He’s angry and frustrated.”

“Yeah, well, you can only use Piper like a yo-yo for so long. Are you gonna get psychological counselling for the team or handle it internally?”

“No, I think that if we all just got together,” Aaron said, a smile playing on his face. “Maybe a cooking lesson and at the home of one of one of our founders—”

“Oh, no, not you too—” Rossi protested.

“It could boost morale,” Aaron finished.

“Is this an order?” Dave asked bitterly.

“No, it's just a— it's a very tempered suggestion.”

“Yeah, tempered suggestion, my ass,” Dave retorted at Aaron’s smirk when Piper returned with JJ, Spencer joining them within the minute.

“Derek said 19 people were admitted in the eighties, but if the trigger happened in the eighties, he would have been a teenager. They don’t fit our profile.”

“And then there were 11,” Piper remarked, bringing the coffee pot closer as the four of them worked through each name, their background and extended family until Hotch noticed each one start to nod off slowly and dismissed them to their hotel rooms.

In the morning, the detective updated them on their latest victim who had gone missing. Tammy Bradstone had similar victimology as the others with the same age and facial features. Hotch and JJ stayed behind to interview the remaining 11 suspects while Derek and Emily left for the Bradstone residence while Piper, Dave and Spencer left for the abduction site which was a motel a few blocks away.

“Manager says it was a homecoming party,” Piper updated them, squinting under the sun as she joined Rossi and Reid outside the motel room.

“So, the kids spill out of the motel toward the cars,” Dave said, glancing back at the door. “If Tammy walked this way, how could she disappear without anyone seeing her?”

“They didn’t question it,” Piper supplied. “It had to be someone Tammy trusted.”

“Unlike the last 3 abduction sites, this one is nowhere near public transportation,” Dave added.

“He had to have stalked her,” Piper realised. “Think about it. The art class, the bar method class, neither of them caught the unsub.”

“Maybe she knew the unsub,” Spencer announced. “What if—what if Tammy was the target all along?”

“That would explain the change in the M.O,” Dave rationalised.

“Tammy could be the stressor,” Piper said. “She might not be the original trigger, but she could be the reason he started killing so recently.” The trio piled back into the SUV.

On the other side of town, Derek plugged the USB into Tammy’s laptop, asking his baby girl to work her magic and turned around to see the little boy near his sister’s bed, asking if they were going to find his sister. Derek promised him that they would try before noticing the empty dye packet in the bin. He picked it up, asking the kid about it and he confirmed that Tammy had dyed her hair blonde, even the dress their mom wore at homecoming. Downstairs, Emily couldn’t help but notice how similar Mrs Bradstone was to the last three victims. In fact, perhaps given a few more years, perhaps they would’ve looked exactly like this. So, as painful as asking was, Emily made the leap and asked the couple if they knew anyone who was disabled or mentally ill, her heart breaking at how easily Mr Bradstone talked about his brother, at his reaction to the possibility his brother was a serial killer.

But somehow, his wife wasn’t. It could have been a perfectly unpleasant concept of stigma, but Lyla Bradstone was reluctant yet forthcoming about her own homecoming, how they had played spin the bottle all those years ago, how the bottle had landed on Cy, how she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, how she surrendered herself to his unwelcome touch, and finally how she had talked about how gross the whole thing had been to a friend within earshot of Cy. She cried into her husband’s shoulder of how she was only 16, how she had caused all this, but Emily was quick to amend that. That this wasn’t her fault, that no-one could have stopped it, knowing that though it may not be true, it was what they needed to hear at that moment.

When both of them eventually calmed down, Emily and Derek split them up to do a cognitive interview of when Cy comes home while the others took each of the garages where Cy worked, one of them which identified Cy, that the unsub had stolen car batteries from them, and he hadn’t come in for the past 2 months. Emily coached Lyla into what they needed her to say, to leave a message at the coffee shop Cy always went to before coming home and what they needed her to say when he would call back and it wasn’t long until the landline started ringing. Derek looked through the window to see Spencer, Rossi and Piper pull up outside the house and opened the door to let them in as Lyla answered her brother-in-law’s call. Crying, the mother told him that her husband had been arrested for hurting her daughter and that she needed him. To talk, according to Emily’s notepad, and to hold her and that she had no-one else to turn to. Piper and Derek volunteered to keep watch outside the house and across the street while Spencer and Rossi kept a watch from the front door with Emily taking care of the couple until Morgan’s voice bled through the earwig.

They waited with bated breath, watching carefully as Cy pealed out of the RV, clutching Lyla and pressing her into his unwanted embrace. Spencer and Rossi watched behind closed curtains as Piper and Derek approached Cy, her Beretta resting comfortingly in her grip and his SIG-Sauer aimed at his back. Spencer and Rossi burst out next, pulling Lyla away and into Emily’s safe arms as Derek pulled out his handcuffs and read him his rights before bundling him into an SUV. But he wasn’t talking. Spencer watched Rossi and Hotch try and break Cy down, fully aware of Piper pacing behind him. “I’m not sure that’s helping, honey.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t see a batting cage where I can work out my nerves, Spence,” Piper snapped before sighing. “Sorry.” She ran a hand through her short hair, taking a seat. Spencer took a seat next to her, lacing his hand through hers.

“She’s a tough kid. We’ll find her.” Piper nodded tiredly. “When’s the last time you slept well?” Piper stared at the floor.

“I dunno,” she said quietly. “It’s been a while.”

“Why don’t I get you a cup of tea?” Spencer offered before pressing a kiss to the top of her hair.

“Thanks,” Piper sighed, leaning back, smiling softly as he left, her eyes half-lidded at the sound of sleep. She fought to stay awake, watching as Rossi called him a freak, a weirdo. It was strange how easily Rossi filled that stigmatising role, but they needed to find Tammy. She let a large yawn escape her lips as Emily entered the room.

“Rossi mustn’t be getting anywhere on his own,” Emily started, taking Spencer’s seat as Mr Bradstone was allowed to take a seat in front of his brother. Piper simply hummed in agreement, too tired to move her body. _Where the hell was Spencer?_ “I think we should talk.” Piper sighed, rubbing her face.

“We need to find Tammy, Prentiss,” she said, her voice firm but low, sending a clear message to Emily. She didn’t want to talk. But before Emily could say another word, Spencer had entered the room, passing Piper her mug of tea and she sighed in peace for the first time all day, simply having the warm mug in her hands. Except she almost dropped it when Cy started yelling ‘son of a bitch’ over and over again in glee.

“That’s not a fit, is it?” Spencer asked, glancing at Piper whose eyes drooped in misery.

“No, it’s the equivalent of a child with a cookie jar,” she said bitterly. Piper had finished about half of her cup by the time Mr Bradstone remembered a place they always went to as children, where Cy had once claimed that he went to second base with Lyla. The group grabbed a gear bag, arming themselves and strapping on vests before merging onto the dry path. Derek was the first through the door, followed by Piper who passed him one of her knives and they got to work freeing Tammy from her chair as Emily and Spencer rushed a medic into the room. Tammy was sobbing in numb feeling in her hands that had completely blistered over with acid and in relief at being free. She murmured ‘thank you’s to the entire team before disappearing inside an ambulance.

As the new norm, Piper continued to avoid Emily as she packed, even falling asleep on the jet’s couch. Spencer was in the other corner of the jet, avoiding JJ while Derek sat listening to his beats next to her, ignoring Hotch. Emily caught JJ’s distraught expression and squeezed her shoulder before making her way to Spencer’s end, taking a seat in front of him as he perused a thick, leather-bound book. “So, the surgeon said he believes he can restore feeling to Tammy's hands.”

“Good,” Spencer said grudgingly. “We got there in time.”

“I heard Mr Bradstone wants to watch the tape,” Emily said next, drawing his attention back from the book.

“People have an innate curiosity to see things in order to confirm them,” Spencer explained.

“Oh, that explains why I'm going to Rossi's tomorrow night. I want to see if he really can cook,” Emily said, smiling broadly. “You coming?”

“I don't know. I'm not so sure I can make it.”

“Look, Reid, I know you're mad at us because we didn't tell you what really happened, and I understand that. But I promise you, we had no choice. I wanted to come back more than anything, even if only to tell you that I was okay. Knowing that you were alone, that Derek thought he’d failed me, that I’d…” Her voice cracked, her gaze sliding over to Piper curled up on her sofa. “I made Piper think it was her fault,” she whispered. “Reid, I’m trying to fix this. But you can’t blame JJ for trying to protect me.” Emily watched him balefully. “Will you come tomorrow?”

“We’ll see,” Spencer said simply, and Emily nodded gratefully, and his gaze turned back to his book. She shot a glance to Piper’s peaceful frame again.

“She’s not going to make it easy on me, is she?” Emily asked Spencer, and he shrugged, smirking softly.

“It hasn’t been an easy year,” Spencer said vaguely.

“Why, thank you, Dr Reid,” Emily scoffed.

“I’d rather her mad at you than me,” he said, smiling at her jovially. They sat in contented silence until the jet hit the tarmac and Dave gently woke Piper up. Derek nodded subtly to Emily, tapping his pocket as they separated.

* * *

Emily locked the car with a satisfying click, sunglasses fixed on her face as she made her way into the batting cages, walking past a familiar bike as her eyes scanned for a familiar figure. Piper was staring down the barrel of the gun, her bat raised above her shoulder. “Hey, slugger,” Emily tried but Piper had swung the bat, smashing the ball with a satisfying ‘bonk’. The fence rattled slightly as the ball crashed. “And it’s a home run for Bishop!” Piper let the bat rest on the floor, pressing a remote on the bench beside her wallet and phone.

“What can I do for ya, Prentiss?” Her smile was flat and cold. “I was told we had a day off. Work hours start Monday.”

“Yeah, ‘cept the thing is, I used to spend my days off with my best friend. You seen her anywhere?”

“Why? Did she disappear?” Piper asked humourlessly, taking her helmet off.

“Don’t be like that.” Emily scuffed the ground with her boot. “I just want to talk.”

“I haven’t exactly stopped you, Prentiss.”

“I’m sorry. I really am, and I know it isn’t enough for what I did. It doesn’t even cover half of what you did for me.” Piper listened intently, wanting Emily’s words to mean something so much. But that’s all they were. Empty words. “I’m running out of things to say here, Bishop.”

“Prentiss, I forgave you for lying the moment you arrived in that conference room. I don’t care that you lied. If that’s what kept you safe all these months, I am fine with all of that.” Piper’s eyes had become red and raw as she dug into her closest friend. “That’s not what hurt. What hurt was that you manipulated me. What hurt was knowing that if I hadn’t given you that bike, none of this would have—” she stopped herself, running her fingers through her roots. “I trusted you,” she whispered. “You told me you didn’t need protection. You told me to back off. You told me to trust you and I was the stupid idiot that did it!”

“You have every right to be mad at me,” Emily said, her voice breaking. “Hell, I wouldn’t blame you if you slugged that bat at me right now. And I am so sorry for what I put you through.” Piper nodded stiffly.

“I know you are. I just—I need time.” Piper stood, reaching her fingers out to clasp at Emily’s through the wired cage. “I can’t promise we’ll be okay.”

“Come to Rossi’s tonight,” Emily pleaded, noticing the prominent darkness under her eyelids.

“You should go,” Piper whispered, stepping back and turning away to reach for her helmet. She stepped onto the base, focusing on the ball barrel, smashing her bat into the baseball to hit the back fence as Emily stepped back and away to her car, praying that she hadn’t lost the person who had held her back for so long.

* * *

Penelope was determined to make this pasta night work, convincing JJ, Emily and Piper to get ready at her place. Emily watched her front door for an hour until JJ pulled her to her feet. Piper wasn’t coming, but JJ seemed convinced Spencer would. Made up, the three women piled into JJ’s car, Rossi’s address in mind. He was right, Penelope remarked as they bundled out. It wasn’t a house, it was a mansion and Italian music cascaded out as the door opened, revealing most of the boys. Aaron was wearing a simple polo shirt that clung rather spectacularly to his muscles. Derek was worse, revelling in a simple grey tee while Dave immersed himself in preparing for the guests, a towel draped over the shoulder of his dark shirt and casual jeans, tongs in hand. Together, they drew to the kitchen counter, leaving their coats and bags by the door and Emily and Penelope’s gaze fixated on the bottle of wine in a cooler. “Now, cooking is the most sensual art form, and these are my paints,” Dave explained, gesturing to the prepped ingredients in front of them, knowing fully well that JJ and Derek were more focused on the wine than the lesson, slowly gravitating towards the bottle.

“So, your hands must be brushes,” Penelope adjoined.

“Don’t interrupt,” Rossi said, and she nodded swiftly while JJ shared a look with Emily, smiling genially. “In a bowl of water, we cook our spaghetti until it’s al dente,” he continued, passing around strands of cooked spaghetti around. “There you go, everybody, pass it around, so you can feel the texture.” JJ and Derek struggled to detangle their strands from each other as Emily pulled at hers, biting into the string of spaghetti. Just as Dave turned around to his pan on the stove, Derek lunged for the wine, passing it to JJ who made to open it until a voice erupted from behind her.

“Hey, no!” Emily laughed incredulously as Piper appeared with a tray of glasses, plucking the bottle of red wine out of JJ’s hands before placing the full champagne flutes onto the counter.

“Wha—When do we drink the wine?” JJ asked, pouting slightly.

“We drink the wine when we eat the meal,” Piper reprimanded, placing the wine back into the cooler while everybody reached for the flutes.

“Ugh, you’re no fun, Pipes,” Derek grumbled, taking a flute instead.

“You, sir, are lucky I made a drink for you at all. Bad things happen when you drink and cook,” she said ominously, making JJ laugh slightly. “Sorry I took so long,” she said to Dave, sitting up on the free portion of the counter next to Emily. “I couldn’t choose between the champagne and the prosecco.”

“What did you do?” Rossi asked, slightly threatening.

“Prosecco. I’m indecisive, not a moron,” Piper said defensively, listening as Dave swatted her off the counter, sharing a smile with Emily.

“Mmm, this is good,” Penelope remarked, sipping on her drink. “What is it?”

“A peach bellini,” Piper said, grasping her flute as attention veered back to the lesson.

“Now, in a large pan, we fry up our pancetta, keeping a sharp eye that the edges are crisp,” Dave continued, showing them the pan with diced onion and pancetta.

“But careful not to burn the onions,” Aaron added.

“Bravo, Aaron!” Dave remarked, making Aaron beam proudly to share a smile with JJ.

“But if you really don’t like pancetta, just use mushrooms instead,” Piper called out, eliciting relief from Penelope’s face and a high-five from Dave.

“We sauté until translucence,” Dave continued, this time, interrupted by the bell.

“I got it!” Piper called out, leaving Emily’s side to open the door.

“Grazie mille!” Rossi exclaimed, placing the pan onto a folded napkin on the counter. “Now we mix the eggs and the parmesan. The spaghet,” he said, using his tongs to add it into the pan. “And parsley,” he finished, mixing the ingredients together in a pan. “You see, it’s all about timing and rhythm and if you don’t feel yourself doing it properly, please order a pizza.” They heard the door close behind them and Dave looked up to see Piper joining them with their last guest of the night.

“Sorry I’m late,” Spencer said, sheepishly. Unlike the others, he had definitely put more effort into his look, a striped, blue shirt and blazer, his arm as usual, around Piper’s waist. He smiled at JJ, accepting the flute she offered

“Yeah, this is why I cook alone. Okay, we start at the beginning. You eat what you cook, I’ll supervise and we’re gonna do this, all together, just like a family,” Dave said dramatically. “Salut!” He raised his glass, clinking it with Penelope as did everyone else, some struggling to reach the others.

Piper worked the drinks, making sure everyone had a drink at all times while Dave went through the line. Of course, JJ and Derek turned it into a competition between them while Dave sat back. Emily’s turn was absolutely chaotic, but it had become very clear that it was part of a masterplan where Dave’s ‘interventionist’ method meant he practically cooked the dish for her while she passed Piper a low five out of sight. Spencer attempted to avoid cooking by explaining the difference between prosecco and champagne until Penelope threw an ice cube at him from the cooler. Aaron’s turn was surprisingly full of flair as he tossed the spaghetti in the air while Derek and Penelope started singing along to ‘Mambo Italiano’, ignoring Dave’s anger as they mumbled at the Italian words. Eventually, it was Penelope’s turn and to make sure Dave stuck to a vegetarian recipe, Derek and Piper stole the eggs and pancetta, forcing him to improvise. As the music changed to ‘Sway’ by Dean Martin, they partnered off, dancing in Dave’s living room. JJ let Aaron twirl her while Spencer taught Piper the box step until she nudged him to watch Derek and Penelope dance. Or rather, Derek stumbling to Penny’s graceful steps. Eventually, Dave popped the wine bottle, Emily helping him pour and they all moved to the dining room, digging into their meals while Italian music lifted their conversation higher, finally all eight of them together, as a family.


End file.
